The Mech Touch

"Hihihi! Do you think Ves…"

"Oh, that must have been dreadful! Can you imagine…"

"...Genetic modification has gone too far!"

The gossip in the design lab sounded anything but amusing to Ves. His girlfriend simply couldn't keep her mouth shut to the female members of their design teams. It was as if they were back in high school instead of a professional setting!

Ves glowered more and more as Gloriana jubilantly referenced the 'adventure' they went through last night!

"Meow?"

Lucky curiously floated in front of his face.

"Hey, at least I got some action, unless you!"

"Meow!"

Right now, Ves stood outside the hatch leading into the design lab and workshop compartment. The reason why he paused here was because he wanted to find out whether Gloriana and the others in the fleet were truly gossiping about last night's 'adventure'.

He didn't listen in on the conversation in the design lab by patching into the monitoring system.

Instead, he resorted to a more covert means and extended his spiritual ear through the bulkheads.

What he found out did not amuse him the slightest!

He could understand it if other people gossiped about his love life. With how much his life was being scrutinized by everyone, it was hard to keep everything secret.

Yet for Gloriana to release teasing hints about his 'performance' made him feel extremely embarrassed! Didn't she have any shame?!

"Probably not." He sardonically muttered.

The only consolation was that his girlfriend sounded very satisfied. At least he made a good accounting for himself, if Gloriana was to be believed!

The moment Ves entered the design lab, all conversation stopped. Gloriana smiled at his appearance while the rest of his assistants and students adopted odd expressions.

It was hard not to maintain his composure amidst all of this intense scrutiny. Ves really wanted to bonk Gloriana's head for being too loose with her mouth!

"Ahem." Ves coughed. "We have a lot of work to do. What are you standing around for? We have two mech designs that need fleshing out!"

The assistant mech designers gradually returned to work after Ves handed out their daily assignments. There was a lot more work to do now they started work on designing the Hexer mech.

With the striker mech design project well underway, everyone had to deal with the stress of juggling two very different mech designs at the same time!

The striker mech design project wasn't all that challenging, actually. Its relative simplicity was only marred by the fact that Ves and Gloriana had very few ways to solve its fundamental capacity problems.

Aside from this sore point, the pair could pretty much design the mech to completion on autopilot. At their level of knowledge and experience, designing mass-market third-class mechs posed no significant challenge to them anymore.

Of course, if they wanted to excel in third-class mech design, they needed to put in a lot of work to surpass the greatest names in this sector.

That required a high mastery in third-class mechs as well as centuries of experience in designing them! Such an extreme level of accumulation was not something that a young pair of Journeyman Mech Designers could pick up in a few years or decades!

Ves could only work towards that height step-by-step as he focused on his own progression. He had already decided to shift his focus towards designing second-class mechs, so it was unlikely that he would be able to match the true specialists who spent centuries to polish their ability to design cheap and extremely cost-effective mechs!

After Ves inspected the coursework of the male Larkinson seeds, he finally managed to catch his girlfriend by herself.

"Gloriana." Ves said with gritted teeth.

"Yes, honey?"

Her brilliant smile and her refreshing scent made it hard for him to remain angry with her. He still felt she violated his privacy, though.

"Could you please not make our lives a spectacle? Our relationship is not a public drama show!"

"Oh, Ves." She approached him and embraced him in a heartfelt hug. "You don't have to be so shy. You 'men' like to brag, do you not?"

"Not all men are the same! And why does it sound strange when you say that word?!"

"That's not important." She pulled back and adopted a lecturing tone. "Look Ves, you're a public figure now. You are the owner and lead designer of the LMC as well as the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan. Do you know what that means?"

"No." Ves cluelessly replied.

"You're starting a new lineage, Ves! I've studied the history of my own dynasty as well as the other dynasties of the Hegemony, and each of them came into power when a successful Hexer managed to translate her momentary fortune into enduring strength! Even when the original founders passed on, their legacy lives on through the dynasties they founded!"

"What does this have to do with our relationship?"

She sighed. "You're not getting it. Aren't you the kind of leader who makes a lot of long-term plans and likes to prepare measures early so that they will bear fruit decades from now? This is exactly what I'm doing right now! I'm reassuring your fellow clansmen and dependents that we are working towards our continuity!"

It took awhile for Ves to process the implications behind her words. Even with his Archimedes Rubal, he was still caught off-guard by her intentions!

"You are talking as if we're establishing our own dynasty!"

She nodded. "Isn't that natural? A lot of people are following you because you are talented and capable, but what happens when you get sick? What happens if one of your many adventures goes wrong? Many people in the fleet can't help but worry what will happen if you are indisposed for one reason or another. The month-long coma you've been under recently has caused a lot of fright among your subordinates."

"That doesn't mean we should adopt outdated feudal customs and work towards establishing our own dynasty!"

"You're mistaken if you think these measures are part of an outdated tradition. The founding families of the Bright Republic, the noble houses of the Vesia Kingdom and the matriarchal dynasties of my home state have all grown strong and enduring due to emphasizing continuity! If you want your legacy to last beyond the prime of our lives, then we should start our planning today!"

Ves was way too uncomfortable with this topic! "It's too soon!"

"Is it?" She threw a sly smile at him. "You weren't so reluctant last night. I must say, do you ever run out of energy? You could power an entire mech with your energy reserves!"

"OKAY, that's enough! Let's stay professional, shall we? You may be my girlfriend, but right now you are a co-worker, nothing more!"

"Hihihi! You're so cute!"

BONK!

"Okay, okay, I'll cut it out!" She whined.

Once she had her fun, they began to discuss their latest project. Now that Ves received the remnant of the Idol of the Superior Mother, they were able to proceed with designing their first Hexer mech.

"This mech will be different from the other mechs we've designed." He began and projected a rough draft of his revised vision. "I have a good idea on what I would like to design, but I'm not too certain about the execution. I've never designed a fully-fledged second-class mech before. Most notably, I'm not well-versed with the capabilities of intended users I'm not that familiar with all of the advanced Hexer components that we are allowed to incorporate in our mech design."

"I can make up for both." Gloriana confidently stated. "That said, it would help if you put some extra effort into catching up. Second-class mech design is an entirely different beast from third-class mech design. In fact, it is very hard to design a technically sound mech at this level that can match the quality of other products designed by established competitors. Most notably, our design team can't contribute as much to this project as they do in other projects. The components, materials, scientific principles are on a completely different level. Unless they learn how to design second-class mechs like you did, they can only be entrusted with the most basic tasks."

That was a very serious problem. Hiring third-class mech designers was cheap and easy, but Ves basically got what he paid for! Miles Tovar, Oscar DiMartin, Mayer Torto and Merrill O'Brian were all third-class mech designers! Their exposure to the advanced technology and design principles of second-class mech designs was fairly modest!

If not for their ability to peruse the textbooks of Clarion University, they would have probably remained completely ignorant!

Hiring additional third-class mech designers didn't address this problem. Their quality was too low to be of any use in projects that had reached this level of complexity.

"We should hire some second-class mech designers." Gloriana suggested. "Let me reach out to my old alma mater."

Ves immediately shook his head. "No! Don't think about it! We are not hiring Hexers, especially for something as important as our design teams!"

"What's your problem, Ves?!"

"Will they listen to my orders or will they only listen to you instead?"

"Not every Hexer is the same! We can hire males instead of females if you are so insecure about maintaining your authority!"

"That's hardly any better!"

They eventually shelved this option.

"I don't want too many weirdos on my design teams." He declared. "While our design efforts are hampered by the lack of second-class mech designers, you shouldn't count out our current assistants. They're improving every day and we can encourage them to transition into second-class mech designers."

"That will take years! They don't have your implant or your cognitive augmentations! Time spent on learning how to design second-class mechs eats up valuable time they could use to progress their design philosophy. This is one of the biggest reasons why they are reluctant to promote. They will be older and further behind compared to those who have designed second-class mechs from the beginning."

That was true. Ves recognized the issues that this measure might bring.

"We'll just have to provide them with the opportunity to augment themselves." He said. "They won't need to waste as much time when their learning efficiency improves. I'll have to make sure they're committed to their jobs and in it for the long haul, though."

These days, Ves no longer handed out his Attribute Candies willy nilly.

In fact, aside from Ketis, his decision to feed his employees with candies seemed to have backfired! Two people he valued turned their backs on him despite showering them with a lavish gift in the form of improving their intellect!

That said, there were many other ways to augment someone's intelligence.

"Dr. Ranya should be available, right?" He asked.

Gloriana nodded. "Yes. Ever since she supervised your recovery, she turned her attention back to her own research."

"Well, I'm short of an exobiologist and medical advisor, so I suppose she has to fulfill this function now. Please tell her to form a plan to augment every member of our design teams. Our assistants could all use the extra assistance with all of the improvements they have to make in order to remain relevant."

"I'll do that, but it will take some time. I think there are plenty of geneticists in your employ that can upgrade their genes. My cousin can install cranial implants in their heads. Together, that should result in a very comprehensive boost to their cognitive functions."

"Don't make it too cheap. I want to invest in them. Ideally, the augmentations should be the same as the ones that Hexers are entitled to. Is that possible?"

His girlfriend furrowed her brows. "That's harder to do. We probably have to hire additional specialists, especially geneticists. They won't come cheap, and the advanced augmentations themselves will also cost a lot."

"We have to hire those people sooner than later, so we might as well do it now. A lot more people will require augmentation as well and it's best if we can perform the operations in-house rather than rely on others."

"Are you okay with hiring Hexer personnel?"

"NO!"